Rajyavardhan strikes gold

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore celebrates his victory in
the Lok Sabha polls with wife, in Jaipur, on Friday. (PTI)

New Delhi: It wasn’t exactly a happy day for sportspersons as three former India captains — Mohammed Azharuddin, Bhaichung Bhutia and Dilip Tirkey — suffered heavy defeats. But Olympic silver medallist shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was a huge saving grace.

Another victor was former India football captain Prasun Banerjee. Banerjee retained his seat at Howrah constituency defeating CPIM’s Sridip Bhattacharya by a convincing 1.96 lakh votes. Rathore, a BJP candidate, humiliated high-profile Congressman and union minister CP Joshi with a winning margin of 3.32 lakh from the Jaipur-Rural constituency.

Azharuddin, a sitting Congress MP, contested from Tonk-Madhopur in Rajasthan, but suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of BJP’s Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria by approx 1.35 lakh votes.

Bhaichung, however, succumbed the worst defeat among the three. A star Trinamul Congress candidate from the controversy-hit Darjeeling constituency, he lost to BJP’s SS Ahluwalia by a whopping 4.91 lakh votes.

The third high-profile candidate, former India hockey captain and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate from Sundergarh, Tirkey, lost by more than 70,000 votes to his nearest rival Juel Oram of the BJP.